WE'RE BACK CONTINUED

These photos were taken at Yarra Valley and in the Yarra Bulga National Park. We walked along rainforest trails to the waterfall at Yarra Valley and also another walk through the Yarra Bulga National Park down over the suspension bridge ... not good
if you don't like heights but certainly very beautiful looking down
into the canopies of the rainforest. When we walked over the bridge, this linked us with another trail through "Fern Gully'. It was really lush and lots of big old established trees with huge gnarled tree roots covered in moss, lots of ferns and ground cover, it got really cool down in this bottom section and when we exhaled it was wafts of fog ... it was almost as though little pixies or fairies could easily live there!! As we got back onto the trail to bring us
out of the National Park we spotted a Lyrebird ... Blake thought
this was just so cool; but, wouldn't you know it, whilst I was trying to zoom & focus on the darn thing ... the camera batteries went flat!!*@?! Where were the spares?? ... in the car (in the carpark) of course! Never mind ... this was a good learning curve, I was very "on the ball" with batteries, spare memory cards etc thereafter.
We were staying at a little town called Yarram whilst we did the National Park thing; and the locals told us about a lovely little
place a few kilometres the other way on the coast ... Port Albert.
This was a cute little place situated on the water with not a lot there but lived up to its' name being a large port and certainly a lovely place to sit and enjoy our fish and chips we brought for tea from the co-op.
We left Yarram and travelled down to Wilsons Promentory National Park. Wilsons Promentory is the southern most part of Australia! To go right to the bottom tip you actually have to do an overnight hike ... I'm sure it is really lovely but to the end of the roal would do us. The road took us as far as Tidal River which is a
really big camping/recreation area. If we lived closer, what a
fabulous weekend getaway with great camping areas through to cabins and group lodge facilities!
We went for a walk along a few of the easier trails ... it was really lovely walking along the boardwalks around the waters, the footbridge area was pretty (where these pics were taken) and lots of the big rock formations were very picturesque! We also seen lots of lovely wildlife including echidnas waddling along the side of the road out on the highway and emus on the way down to Tidal River ... this all contributes to a wonderful experience.
Well this will do for tonight ... hope I'm not boring anyone too much!
Next chapter ... Phillip Island (and those gorgeous little Fairy Penguins).

On a different note ... Australian Idol ... I have never been an idol fan, but this season I have gotten really hooked. I happened to flick over on the tv one night when the auditions were on and seen Jessica sing, she has got the most amazing voice and I continued to watch to see whether she progressed. Well, 4 to go ... I think Dean is great too, but really hope Jess wins!

Keep Smiling ... JULIE x

WE'RE BACK

One Month's Holiday, 5022 klms & Over 500 Pics ... Where do I Begin??
We had a fabulous time. We've been, seen & done soooo many things ... I can't believe how fast it went. Back to work today ... that is a definate reality check!! Our holiday certainly wasn't rushed, but it was very busy. Everyday we had somewhere to go, something to see, a tour to go on ... lots of fun.

We left home on Sunday, 1st Oct and our first stop was Kiama. We have friends who live here (lucky people ... this place is beautiful) and we havn't seen them for about 12 months so it was great to catch up with them for a few days.

Then we travelled along the south coast down through Berry (what a gorgeous little country town & lovely shops). Drove out and had a look around Jervis Bay & the National Park - this area is sooo pretty and the water is bright aqua blue. Batemans Bay, Ulladulla and all along the South Coast is just beautiful.
These photos taken of the kids (my son Blake (on right) and my niece Jessica & nephew Jacob were taken at the park we stayed at on the river at Moruya. Moruya is just off the coast and a lovely little country-like town. At the park we had the river on one side
and lush green paddocks on the other with lots of very healthy looking cows. It is amazing how such simple things can keep children amused. We continued our travels along the South Coast and there are so many places I could 'rattle off' but this blog would turn into a novel ... a few places that come to mind are Tuross Heads, Bermagui, Merimbula, Pembula Beach, Eden ... all very pretty. On our travels through Bega we stopped in at the Bega Cheese Factory. They have a public viewing area where you can
watch the cheese being made and also a museum/history area - all quite interesting!
Once over the border and into Victoria it really felt like we were tourists! We stayed a couple of
days in Lakes Entrance. This is also a lovely place and has a big working port with lots of trawlers etc which all adds to that seaside town atmosphere. By the time we had got down this far we had experienced some fairly cold weather and wind (oh boy, I was so sick of wind by the time we got home)! Wouldn't you know it, I left our lovely warm all weather jackets at home (layed out on the lounge ready to pack in the car) !*?#!! So we now have some more jackets to add to our collection (which we need like a hole in the head) all the way from Victoria! One thing I noticed about
Victoria is that the parks & waterfront are maintained and presented beautifully, even when we travelled inland further on this is one of the things that stood out. Along the waterfront at Lakes Entrance is lots of big wooden carved statues ( i think they are carved out with chainsaws). There is lovely big long jetty which goes from the township over across to 90 Mile Beach - all lovely. The scenic photo was taken from a lookout down over the water at Lakes Entrance - off course these things always look
better in real life but it really was gorgeous.
From this area we headed down to Yarram so we could visit the Yarra Bulga National Park - beautiful rainforest walks with waterfalls & a huge suspension bridge over the valley ... then down to Wilson's Promentory which is the most southern part of Australia. I'll start of my next blog with some photos of these ... I think this will do tonight ... I hope you are still awake!
No matter where you go, it is such a true saying that 'there is no place like home' and all jokes aside , it is good to be home.

Went to a scrapbooking day yesterday (first lot of scrapping I have done in about 8 weeks) and it was lovely to catch up with all my scrapbooking friends again.

Hope everyone has been well and all has been good over the past weeks.
Look forward to chatting/blogging with everyone,
Have a good week.
Cheers, JULIE x

Last Minute Blog

It has been nearly 3 weeks since i have blogged so i thought i should do a last minute post before we head off on our holiday. The time is now 2.30 in the morning (yes I know I'm crazy) and we will be leaving in approx 2 hours ... One whole month ... travelling the South Coast, Great Ocean Road & Victoria! I am soooo excited and also soooo disorganised; hence i am still up at this crazy hour taking care of all those last minute things like packing clothes, making sure the camera & memory card is all in order and of course ... a last minute blog!
So farewell for a month. When we return i will have a super dooper long blog with photos to catch up on our snow trip from 2 weeks ago (had a great time) and lots of piccies and chat about this holiday.
Cheers,
JULIE x